


and this heart you let sleep

by eversall



Series: pack is an alive thing [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, M/M, Pack Feels, Rebuilt Hale House
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 04:45:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4692527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eversall/pseuds/eversall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles dragged those fingers across Derek’s shoulders on the anniversary of the fire, used them to push against Derek’s chest and talk to him furiously about the pack and people that need him, and taps them against the beams of Derek’s burned down childhood home.<br/>.<br/>Derek doesn't just steady Stiles' trembling fingers when he rebuilds the Hale house; he steadies the pack. <em>His </em>pack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and this heart you let sleep

**Author's Note:**

> The story that constitutes part 1 of this series was actually originally written from both Stiles' and Derek's perspective, but I took out Derek's part when it became too confusing and wrote it as a separate thing. Finding a way to finish it was just about the most frustrating thing to do. Also, I'm oddly charmed by Danny and Isaac and now want to write more about them and about everyone really so more to come in this series??? I hope.

The thing is, Derek has always liked Stiles’ fingers. Probably more than is strictly necessary for two people that are barely more than friends.

But. _But_. Stiles dragged those fingers across Derek’s shoulders on the anniversary of the fire, used them to push against Derek’s chest and talk to him furiously about the pack and people that need him, and taps them against the beams of Derek’s burned down childhood home. Stiles thinks that he drives Derek _crazy_ , but he doesn’t, god, having him there is like the chill of the ocean on a sticky sweet summer day, the kind it was the first time Derek saw the Pacific.

So there’s no doubt in his mind, when he sees the tremors start running up and down Stiles’ slender fingers, that it’s time. Stiles looks haunted, a wildness creeping into his eyes and Derek is laconic at best but he’s no martyr. He _wants_ , and as soon as he finds out Stiles is running away, he’s afraid Stiles may never come back.

(He’s also afraid that if he goes with Stiles, _he_ may also never come back, but he doesn’t care. He’s not the Alpha anymore. He’s not anything.)

.

God, fuck, Stiles is beautiful, flying down the highway with the moon glinting off his eyes. He’s tugging his hair, his fingers steady as he drives like a maniac. Derek doesn’t understand what it is about the stillness of the night seeping in through the windows of the Jeep that makes him feel like his heart is dancing out of its chest.

.

He accidentally scent-marks Stiles at the nondescript hotel they stay in the first night. He can’t help it, because he didn’t know they were going to share a bed or that Stiles would unashamedly croon songs into the quiet enveloping them. He cuddles into the younger boy’s side; Derek’s a werewolf, and always runs slightly too warm, but the feeling of Stiles next to him _burns_ in the best way and Derek wants moremore _more_ and he can’t do anything but breathe in and out against the tender skin of his neck.

He feels the shaking in Stiles’ hands before Stiles notices – it jerks him out of a nightmare about fire and water and his pack and Stiles - and Stiles’ heart picks up minutely. He hears a quiet exhale from the other side of the bed. Before he can think about it he picks Stiles’ hand up.

If he can share the tremors, maybe he can share the rest of his life with Stiles as well.

.

Stiles makes a promise to Derek – that he’ll have something happy. It feels like the whole world is slotting into place for Derek, and he wants to do something stupid like scream and cry and laugh into a pillow. (But he doesn’t. Because, _reasons_. Reasons like Stiles is pressing kisses to his forehead and dragging those damn fingers – shaking, again – through his hair and Derek really likes this. Even if he’s falling apart under it, he really likes this.)

.

When they get back and see the pack anxiously milling around the Stilinski house, and Derek notices the Sherriff watching from the window worriedly, Derek _gets_ it. People say you choose your friends, but you don’t choose your family, and that’s not true; you have to make the choice, every day, that they’re really your family and you’ll keep them in your heart unconditionally. It’s a conscious decision, and Derek makes it in that moment because he sees the way all the pups try to touch him and Stiles and Scott flashes his eyes alpha-red before wilting in relief and admitting he’s just glad they’re _safe_.

Derek likes this. He was never born to be an alpha; he was born to a large pack with a large territory to run through and a large family and a large _house_. Every single one of those things except for the house is in his grasp now, and he can fix the house problem.

.

Derek constructs with care. He helped Dad and Laura build a cottage one summer so that Dad could surprise Mom with it. That was a dumb idea, because Mom was a _werewolf_ , how were they supposed to lie to her? Except Dad, human and optimistic that he was, was convinced that he could do it. And, perhaps most surprising of all, he’d actually succeeded in surprising Mom.

 _Love_ , his dad had said fondly, _teaches you all sorts of things_.

He knows that _now_ , as he watches Stiles hotly debate to himself the merits of a formal living room if they’re all going to use the den anyway. Derek leans out of the side that he’s working on, and yells to him _we need the formal room to receive other packs_ , and Stiles lets out this annoyed _oh_ and Derek smirks because he knows Stiles is fussing over the blueprints and won’t stop until it’s perfect.

.

 _You know that you do a lot for this pack already, you don’t need to do this to prove anything_ Derek says one day, hovering over Stiles and reviewing the plans for the third floor. He feels like Stiles has to know this, or he’ll start working himself to death over this because he thinks he’s expendable.

It’s amusing , because he’s not, obviously, but it’s sad at the same time because Derek’s new pack has never had this before and, as a result, doesn’t understand that pack doesn’t work like that. Pack isn’t a Jenga pile where you can remove parts and trust that it’ll stay alive for the most part; pack is a real thing, an alive thing that’s tangled up in the messiest of ways. You can’t separate one part without cutting the rest apart.  

 _Sure_ Stiles says, but he sounds grateful and shoots Derek a tiny, gentle smile and tries to drag him into a headlock.

.

 _I’m not buying you this_ Derek tries to sternly tell Isaac, but he’s got a soft spot a mile wide for the curly haired _menace_ and so he grudgingly pretends not to be looking as Isaac sneaks a wolf windchime into the shopping cart. He takes out all the Toblerone chocolate though because he wants everyone to eat a little healthy, damn it. When he reaches the cash register, he frowns, because the Toblerone chocolates bars are not only in the cart again but seem to have produced babies and there is _more_ chocolate in the cart, not to mention the boxed set of Harry Potter DVDs that’s sitting innocently in the corner that he _knows_ he didn’t want to buy.

 _Isaac_ he hisses, but Isaac holds up his hands in surrender with a choked off laugh and glee in his eyes, and next to him Danny’s laughing so hard he’s clutching at Isaac’s arm to stay upright. Derek lets this one go because he knows that look on Isaac’s face as he stares down at Danny; it’s _this_ close to besotted and Derek can’t say anything or Stiles will laugh at him later when he goes home and inevitably grumps about it.

.

_Derek and Stiles_

That’s all the big room says. According to the blueprints, it has easy window access and a luxurious king bed and –

And Stiles is staring at him shyly, flicking a pen in his right hand and tapping his left hand against his leg rhythmically and Derek loses himself just for a second in the smell of Stiles, so familiar and wonderful. He gives up any hope of resisting and practically _launches_ himself at Stiles, bearing down on the younger boy and kissing him sweetly and hotly all at once. Stiles gives as good as he gets, curling his tongue and gripping Derek’s shoulders hard enough to bruise.

Stiles’ hands are steady where they’re clutching him, and Derek knows with the certainty that comes from his inner wolf howling _mate_ that those lithe fingers will never tremble again.

.

It’s not like life is always perfect. Most of the pack goes to college, and only Scott lives at home now. Admittedly, they don’t handle it very well the first weekend and it’s Jackson that drives home and slaps some sense into them when Derek and Scott pass out on the couch, drunk as hell from wolfsbane-laced alcohol.

Jackson makes a promise to Derek then – that none of them are leaving – and Derek stares up at the boy who is clearly annoyed at having to show he actually has a heart, but not annoyed enough to be anything less than dead serious about it.

 _I did good with you – you did good with you_ he slurs, lifting his bottle in Jackson’s direction and lazily toasting him. Scott echoes him drunkenly, and Jackson sighs, grabbing a bottle for himself.

 _Yeah_ Jackson says, smiling wryly, _we all did good, dude_.

.

So Derek goes about establishing a life for himself in Beacon Hills. Before his ragtag pack came together – before _Stiles_ – he didn’t ever consider this as a possibility:

He wakes up early in the morning, the fresh smell of pine trees and mist curling pleasantly through the air, and loses himself in baking which is the last thing he thought he’d be good at but he _is_ , and delivers everything around town as the sun rises. He gets back in time to see Stiles’ looking _edible_ with bedhead and rumpled clothes, blinking sleepiness out of his eyes, attempting to make breakfast but just putting whole eggs on the frying pan in his tiredness. After saving Stiles’ from the kitchen’s attempt to trick him with its underhanded ways into making a mess and possibly _dying_ (these are not Derek’s words), the rest of the pack drifts awake and they all make breakfast together, because although that results in a food fight between Jackson and Scott, and Danny accidentally burns himself and Isaac nearly burns himself as well worrying about Danny, _although_ Lydia does nothing but perch on the counter top and direct everyone around as a self-proclaimed ‘benevolent dictator’ and Boyd falls asleep halfway through trying to make toast and only Erica’s quick reflexes prevent an electrocution –

 - it’s home, and family, and _pack_ , and Stiles’ hand is steady against Derek’s thigh under the table, and it’s good. It’s _perfect_.

 

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: now you can find me on [ tumblr!!! ](http://eversall.tumblr.com/) i know, you're SO excited *sarcasm*


End file.
